Recruiters Rely More on Social Media for Talent

More than eight out of 10 recruiters will make greater use of LinkedIn

Social media is already overwhelmingly used by recruiters. According to a survey of recruiters and executives in North America conducted by recruitment software company Bullhorn, 98% of recruiting professionals made use of social media to find talent in 2012. This represents an overall increase from 2011, when 94% of recruiters used social media, a change primarily driven by increased use of LinkedIn, which 97.3% of recruiters used last year.

Many of the recruiters surveyed expected their jobs to become even more social media-focused in 2013: A striking 82.6% said they planned to use LinkedIn more than they did already. Additionally, 38.3% of recruiters surveyed intend to spend more time on Twitter and 37.4% will spend more time on Facebook. Google+ and blogging are also getting increased attention: Roughly one-fifth of respondents said they’ll increase use of each.

But while many are ramping up usage in 2013, some services were overall slightly less popular with recruiters in 2012. The study found that Facebook declined in use in 2012 among recruiters, with 51.3% using it last year, down from 60.2% in 2011. Twitter also experienced a slight decline in popularity among recruiters; just under half of them continued to use it in 2012, down from just over half in 2011.

When asked which services had helped them successfully place candidates, recruiters overwhelmingly cited LinkedIn: Last year 93% placed a candidate using the service.

Facebook came in second—17% had recruited successfully through it, while 13% had done so through Twitter. Facebook was also the only channel that saw a decline in the percentage of staffing professionals who had successfully placed a candidate through the channel.